Of all the games I checked out at E3, perhaps of all the games I’ve played ever, Heroes of Ruin by far wins the award for having the worst name. It just sounds dumb, and I can’t really wrap my head around what it’s supposed to mean. Nevertheless, I’d taken an early interest in the game upon learning about its focus on multiplayer cooperative adventuring. If the only real bad thing I can say about the game is that its name sucks, that’s not such a big deal after all.

Where to begin? Heroes of Ruin is an action-RPG being developed by n-Space Inc, and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo 3DS. I was told by the Square Enix representative that it’s being developed particularly with focus on a western audience, and I do get that impression from its theme and style. There is a large focus on exploration and building up stats and equipment. But since it features largely action gameplay, it’s a game I can get behind.

Naturally, you have your classes and customization. There are four available, including one that wields pistols and the typical spell caster. I chose to play as the Vindicator class since it was an enormous lion-man with a sword, and that was just awesome (it also made me think of Mega Man somehow). I didn’t bother to mess around with the character customization, but it seems mostly for aesthetic purposes. If you want to be a Vindicator I think you’re always going to be a lion-man.

Getting down to the gameplay, it reminded me a bit of the Torchlight demo I played some months back, or perhaps any other Diablo-clone. The beauty here is, because it has action controls I can actually play it and feel like a part of what’s going on. I’m not just clicking on things, which is why I could never get into games like Diablo. Thus combat is pretty hack-and-slash, at least for the character I was using. Different attacks are assigned to the various buttons, and you can reassign them as you learn new attacks. These skills are developed through the typical skill tree setup that expands as you level up. There’s also plenty of loot to come across, and the game promises to have thousands of items to find, albeit many are class specific. One thing I really liked was that simply standing on an item gave a quick graphic telling you if it was better or worse than what you already equipped.

Outside of the hub city, areas are dynamically generated and appear different each time you come out. The representative did not want to refer to it as randomly generated, which gives an implication of being put together without consideration. I am guessing there are basic kind of structures the game uses to develop area layouts, which helps make sure it doesn’t generate anything nonsensical. Nevertheless, it’ll be like a new world every time you go out to adventure, though a map does fill out as you explore, and I presume remains until your finish your objectives and return. This setup definitely sounds like a great step for keeping the game fresh feeling after continuous playing.

What really makes Heroes of Ruin beat the pants off of a game like Torchlight, in my opinion, is its cooperative multiplayer of up to four players per instance. Supported both through local and online, you can play with pretty much anyone from around the world. Players can drop in and out as they please without interrupting the ongoing adventure. You can also voice chat with people in real time, trade items and form alliances (so you can bet Team WingDamagia is going to be getting in on some monster stomping). Additionally, new content is planned to be added over SpotPass, including new challenges sent every day.

Outside of its awful name, there is one other thing that bugged me about Heroes of Ruin, and that’s how utterly generic it looks. I know I’m usually the one who doesn’t give a flip about graphics, and I’m not saying the game looks ugly. It just doesn’t seem to have its own unique style and charm, and the designs of characters and enemies look like they could come from any typical fantasy-themed media. Nothing really stands out.

Despite those small qualms, however, Heroes of Ruin is definitely shaping up to be a fun and depth-filled game. It was one of the few instances where I gave praise to the representative on hand and told him the development is really on the right track. Heroes of Ruin is set to come out in early 2012, and if you plan on having a Nintendo 3DS by then it’s a game I would recommend keeping an eye on.

The Mojave wasteland is a dangerous place. It’s full of giant mutated animals, raiders, and warring factions, all vying for the same small pieces of dust that are still livable. In other words, it’s just an average day in the Fallout universe.

This time around, Obsidian Entertainment is at the helm, and their team has some of the guys from the original PC Fallout games. While I’ve only briefly experienced the first two games, I was very interested to see what they would bring to the table for Fallout: New Vegas.

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat; New Vegas is not Fallout 4. Obsidian used Bethesda’s Gamebryo engine to build the game. New Vegas looks and feels a lot like Fallout 3. Some might even say exactly like it. The FPS mechanics are in place, the V.A.T.S. system is there, and the character models are still kind of ugly, while the wasteland has it’s own strange beauty to it. This is, as it was intended to be, a spin-off.

Basic game mechanics aside, Obsidian did leave their stamp on the franchise once again.

The Fallout series has always been known for its Karma system. Knowledge of your good or bad deeds will spread around the wasteland. This will effect how various characters react to you in conversations, even opening or closing quest chains depending on what they think of you. There is another layer added to that in New Vegas. Now, all the characters belong to various factions.

Your behavior towards the factions will cause you to either be liked, which opens up new quests and gives you discounts in their stores, or hated. If a faction hates you, they will usually attack you on site. There is one way around this, in which you can wear the clothes of their faction and they will accept you as one of their own. Sounds like a get out of jail free card, right?

Well, it would be, but sometimes the NPC’s are smarter than that.

After becoming hated with a group of outlaws because I defended a town against them, I tried to infiltrate the prison they had taken over by wearing their faction armor. However, when I got to the guard at their door, he knew something was up. I played as a female character, and he knew there were no woman at the prison before the takeover. It was an interesting twist that I was not expecting to come across.

And that is really the strength of New Vegas. As you would expect with a story driven RPG, Fallout: New Vegas has a plot full of twists and turns. It’s these sort of moments where the game takes you completely by surprise that really drive things forward. Every quest has multiple ways to approach it, depending on your character stats, and several different outcomes. This is great news if you are the kind of gamer that re-plays their games several times. If you want to try something fun, put your intelligence down to 1. Characters will comment on how stupid you are, and your responses in conversations will sometimes reflect your lack of communication skills.

That speaks to another aspect that is very firmly intact for New Vegas. The games have traditionally had a very dark sense of humor, and that is definitely present here. There is even a special perk you can choose at the start of the game called “Wild Wasteland” which will add such Easter eggs as an adventurer that was killed in the nuclear blast while hiding in a fridge, a scorched couple you can find in a destroyed town named Owen and Beru, and many more such nerdy references.

"Me and RoboCop, chillin in the Wasteland"

But sadly, it isn’t all fun and games in the wasteland. Those that bought the game at launch, or that don’t have an internet connection, are very likely to encounter bugs. I started playing New Vegas the day the first patch hit the PC version. Even still, I encountered some crashes, framerate issues when playing for extended periods of time, and one instance where my companion stopped following me and I had to reload my save file to correct the issue.

Since this was post-patch, the issues were pretty few and far between for me. There is also already a second patch in the works. But please be aware; if you normally don’t have your console of choice hooked up to the internet to download the latest software patches, you will likely encounter some very strange bugs. If you have the means to hook your machine to the internets, please do so if you plan on playing through New Vegas. For your own sake.

That aside, I really enjoyed my time with Fallout: New Vegas. The writing was interesting and took turns that surprised me. The mechanics I loved in 3 were back and worked just as well as I remembered. For fans of the series, New Vegas is going to be a must play. If you are new to the franchise, I would probably suggest either waiting for the second patch or picking up Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition. Either way, you are in for some fun in the desolate wasteland sun.

This review is based on a copy of the PC (Steam) version of Fallout: New Vegas provided to us by Bethesda Softworks.

"Looking for treasure... just like the Goonies."

In any given RPG, the wooden sword and cardboard shield you start with aren’t going to be the ones you keep forever. Usually you get rid of them by the time you hit your first town. But when you buy that new set of gear and equip it, only to find your character has only changed in numbers and not in appearance, it is a bit of a letdown.

If you are talking about old school sprite based games, I will concede that it was more trouble than it was probably worth to put visible loot into a game. Re-drawing that many sprites would be time consuming and prohibitively costly. Where 3D character models are involved, there aren’t a lot of excuses left when you are dealing with stat driven games and RPG mechanics.

There is nothing quite as addictive to me as a progressive, well thought out loot system that is reflected on your character.

I am not going to deny the merits of a well developed “static” character in this article. That is an entirely different subject. What I’m talking about are games where character growth is driven by a good system of fighting monsters, getting gold, and gathering random loot drops. Recently, three very different games have made me realize what a sucker I am for loot.

The first was Torchlight, which I originally saw when wandering the show floor of PAX last year. What drew me in at a glance was its aesthetics. Runic Games picked a very unique, cartoonish style for their world that I find very appealing.

I happily pre-ordered the game through Steam, then sunk a ton of hours into it upon its release. Torchlight is what has commonly become known as a “Diablo Clone”; a game where you fights hordes of enemies, gain levels and new abilities, and most importantly, collect randomly dropped loot. Combat takes place by clicking on your enemies and (most effectively) using keyboard shortcuts to use your special abilities to get yourself out of jams, buff your stats, etc.

The loot is progressively better as you delve deeper into the mines and fight tougher monsters. Being a class based game, much of what you find won’t apply to the character you are currently using. The good news is, you can store it in a special treasure chest for your other characters back in town or give them to your pet, who can go back to town and sell all your stuff while you keep fighting. This is a huge contributing factor as to why Torchlight is my favorite game in this genre.

Torchlight is an easy recommendation to make. For a mere $20, it provides hours of loot hunting goodness. If you keep your eyes pealed, it often goes on sale in both the Steam and Direct2Drive stores.

The second game that made me realize my loot addiction was Borderlands. 2k Games was stoking the fires of the hype machine for this game long before it’s release, but something about it just didn’t hook me; until I played it for myself, that is.

When I booted up Borderlands, my first thought was that it was trying a little hard to be “wacky”. The bus driver’s thick accent and abrasive personality while he regails you with stories of the vault and the aggressively goofy, nearly Jar Jar-esque first encounter with Claptrap turned me off.

I had heard good things and really wanted to give it a fare shake. I’m glad I did. Once I settled in to the world of Pandora, I found myself addicted. Once again, the game had a heavy focus on a loot mechanic. This time, instead of swords and armor, you find guns. Lots of guns.

The fun thing about the loot in Borderlands is the strange combination of stats the guns can have. I have found a shotgun that fires all the bullets in one big ball in a perfectly straight line, essentially making it act like a rocket launcher. I have found a 2-shot pistol that, despite a super-fast reload time, regenerated bullets faster than I could shoot them.

The loot system drew me in enough to not only end up loving the game (enough that it was #10 on my top games of last year), but I actually ended up enjoying the goofy aesthetic that went along with it.

The third game on my list works in an entirely different way, but is still all about the loot. Monster Hunter Tri doesn’t just hand you loot, you have to work for it.

I once told my wife that if they ever made an MMO that played like Fable 2, I would be hooked for life. I have to amend that and replace Fable 2 with Monster Hunter Tri.

The Monster Hunter series doesn’t have a level up mechanic. If you want to be stronger, then you need loot. But you aren’t just handed loot from killing the game’s impressively giant monsters. You kill monsters, skin them for parts, gather resources, then build and upgrade your own weapons and armor.

Even with as much as I enjoy random loot drops, there is something even more gratifying about doing a boss run to get that last piece of the puzzle you are missing to build that sweet new giant hammer or finish a full set of matching armor to get it’s additional bonuses.

There may not be a lot of story or any character development to speak of, but Monster Hunter Tri keeps me playing with my friends for one thing alone: the love of loot.

"A hard game to ask for by name."

Kingdom Hearts is a series that is starting to have more “side stories” than numbered games. The latest entry, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, takes place after an event that happened most of the way through the first game and spans all the way up until Kingdom Hearts 2 begins (with Chain of memories taking place in parallel). But enough about time-lines.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days tells the story of Roxas and his time spent in Organization XII. Following a popular trend, the intro takes place in the middle of the game before starting at Roxas’ beginnings. However, I’m not entirely sure why this was done since unlike other examples of this technique, the glimpse into the future was completely uninteresting.

"You'll see these three eat ice cream many more times than you want to."

As a member of Organization XIII, Roxas must complete missions to support their cause. Each mission you take on will progress the game by one day until you get to the magic number, 358. But that isn’t to say there are 358 missions. There are a few time lapses throughout. Also, not all missions are required in order to progress the game’s story.

Battles are not card based, nor do they use any other odd gimmick. If you’ve played either of the numbered entries, 358/2 Days is going to feel very natural to you. In fact, I was very impressed at just how well they were able to translate the 3D action RPG gameplay of the series into a handheld with no control sticks and less buttons.

What makes the core battle mechanics of 358/2 Days unique is the panel system. This is a grid of squares where all of your abilities will be equipped. As you progress through the game, you will unlock more panel slots which will allow you to equip even more abilities. Usable items, equipable items, individual casts of magic, new moves, and even experience levels all must be put in the panel system to take effect.

"The panel system feels very fresh and enjoyable."

Some panels take up more than one slot and can even have additional panels link inside them to enhance their effect. Inversely, some large panels are enhancements themselves, doubling or even quadrupling the effect of the panels placed inside them. For example, if you equip two “Fire” panels, you can cast a fire spell twice before needing to use an ether. But if those two “Fire” panels are within a “Doublecast” panel, you will be able to perform four spells. The panel system allows for a lot of customization to suit your play style and it is very satisfying to use. It is, by far, my favorite aspect of the game.

Unfortunately, the panel system was more exciting than the actual missions I was to use it in. While there are a number of different mission types, you won’t be visiting any worlds you haven’t already seen in previous games. Combine that with the fact that you’ll be revisiting a very small number of worlds over and over again and things start to get repetitive. Fortunately, blocked areas force missions to take place in different areas of this world, but it still can’t shake all of the monotony.

The game feels like it was geared more toward multiplayer than singleplayer. The story moves at a snail’s pace, and even when you’ve unlocked all its mysteries feels completely unnecessary. Chain of Memories was a much needed bridge to the story between the first two games in the series, but 358/2 Days really adds nothing to the over arching lore of the series as a whole and with the exception of a few key moments, is largely uninteresting.

"Controlling the other members of Organization XIII is much more fun than playing as Roxas."

While the story mode forces you to play as Roxas, the mission mode (both in singleplayer and multiplayer varieties) allows you to control any member of Organization XIII as well as a few unlockable characters. Even when playing alone, the ability to switch to different characters gave the game a much needed sense of variety that the story mode so sorely needed. Each of the Organization members has a unique flow to their attacks as well as different strengths and weaknesses. Had story mode allowed you to switch characters, it would have been a much better solo experience.

Back on a positive note, 358/2 Days has some of the best 3D graphics I’ve ever seen on the DS platform. They did not resort to using super deformed proportions as seen in the Final Fantasy remakes. Models have a very reasonable amount of detail, and everything is fluidly animated. It’s just a shame we’ve already seen these worlds with higher poly-counts in times past.

If you’re looking for an epic RPG with a good story, I would not recommend Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. However, if you’re looking for an action RPG that you can play in very short bursts either by yourself or with up to three friends, it will probably satisfy you with more polish than Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time.

"Despite popular belief, this is a screenshot and not something framed on my wall."

I have come to the conclusion that the staff at Vanillaware is made up of a bunch of wizards who use very powerful magic to make the graphics for their games. The above screenshot alone is enough to cause a “double take“. And yet, that is nothing compared to seeing “Muramasa: The Demon Blade”  in motion. The game somehow managers to look like a moving painting, and I don’t say that lightly.

But Muramasa’s graphics are already becoming increasingly well known. The story that really must be told is that of its gameplay. After all, the prettiest game in the world (which this just might be) is nothing without fun and engaging gameplay to back it up.

Fortunately, Muramasa has this in spades. Though it’s often labeled an “Action RPG”, the game’s primary focus is on the action, with RPG elements backing it up more subtly. While traversing the luscious 2D environments, you will have random encounters, but they will not take you to a separate battle screen. Instead, enemies will appear by popping out of the ground or dropping from the ceiling as you ready your blade.

I was shocked at how many different attacks you can perform in battle right off the bat. All of your standard attacks are performed with a combination of directional stick input (or pad if you prefer) and a single attack button. Using this method, you can perform standard slashing combos, uppercuts, stabs, jumping somersaults, zig-zagging air dashes, dodge rolls, blocks, and more.

What’s even more amazing than the sheer number of actions that can be performed is how fluidly they can be linked together. Chaining each move allows you to take on ridiculous numbers of enemies at once, while racking up huge combos. The combat feels very reminiscent of the 3D Ninja Gaiden games, but on a 2D plane (not to be confused with the combat in the 2D Ninja Gaiden games).

To make things even more interesting, Muramasa has you equip three swords at once. You will only attack with one at a time, but you can switch between the three at the push of a button. This has several uses. Each sword you acquire in the game has a “secret art” that consumes “soul power”. This is essentially a special attack, specific to that sword. There is a surprising variety in the secret arts including creating phantoms of yourself, shooting ground waves, spinning around rapidly in the air, and performing elemental slashes… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

"Got a pesky Tengu problem? Call Momohime!"

Besides secret arts, each sword has its own attack power. Most swords even have a bonus effect such as “no poison”. They’re also divided into two categories: blades and long blades. The regular blades allow you to perform numerous quick slashes while the long blades will cause each attack to be a slow, but powerful swing.

The swords’ individual abilities are not the only reason to switch between them, however. Every time you block an enemy’s attack, it will consume some of your soul power (just like using secret arts). If your soul power is completely depleted, your sword will break. Thankfully, all swords will heal themselves and regain their soul power when they’re sheathed. As an added bonus, switching swords will periodically cause you to perform “Quick Draw”, an attack that damages all the enemies on screen.

When you boot up the game, it will ask you which character you want to play as. The two characters have their own independent stories, and progress for both is stored in a single save slot. Though they both have the same move set, Momohime’s attacks are much faster while Kisuke’s are slower and stronger. Interestingly, the game’s difficulty setting can be adjusted at any time from the pause menu.

The map structure gives off a “Metroidvania Light” vibe in that, while set up in a much simpler manner than either Metroid or Castlevania, every level is still connected in one giant map. Rather than special abilities granting access to the next areas, each blade gained from a boss allows you to break barriers of a specific color.

Speaking of bosses, Muramasa’s are a blast to fight. Each one is visual masterpiece. On top of that, each boss fight has a distinctly different feel. I was always excited to see what the next boss would be like.

Beating bosses is actually one of two ways to obtain new blades. The game also lets your forge them. The forging menu is set up as a giant branching tree. In order to unlock a blade, you must have all the ones that connect to it above. Because the blades from bosses can’t be forged, much of what is unlocked depends on which bosses have been defeated. Once a blade is unlocked, you must spend “spirit” (obtained from eating recovery items) and “souls” (obtained from defeating enemies and collecting them on the map). No other materials are necessary for forging.

"While fighting giant centipedes, I managed to get a 650+ hit combo."

You will, however, need materials for cooking. When not engaged in battle, you can use the recipes and ingredients you find and buy to make food. Some of the recipes are for food that must be eaten immediately while others let you make recovery items that can be used in battle. Even cooking looks beautiful in Murasama. Each dish has a completely unique and detailed animation to go along with it that looks so good that I regret how many times I played the game on an empty stomach.

The music in Muramasa is also great. Though most of it consists of traditional Japanese instruments (much like Okami’s soundtrack), it’s also occasionally spiced up with rocking guitar or electronica. The mix of styles gives it a unique sound. Quite possibly my favorite touch is that when a battle is initiated, other instruments are dynamically layered onto the existing song rather than abruptly switching to “battle music”. This makes the transition in and out of battles even more seamless and satisfying.

One of my only real complaints with Muramasa is how often assets are reused for different areas. Fortunately, they’re so breath taking that seeing them again isn’t too big of a deal, and usually they will add different lighting effects to make it less noticeable when it does happen.

Each character’s story takes roughly 8-10 hours to beat. Though it is the same overall map, Kisuke starts on the far west while Momohime starts on the far east. The characters have entirely different stories, bosses, and blades. Also, each boss has their own unique section of the map leading up to them.

Fortunately, the game doesn’t stop there. After clearing both stories, you will be able to access new ares and fight many optional bosses. You will also be able to share blades between the two characters, unlocking even more forging options where the characters’ trees overlap. Only by using blades obtained after your first play-through will you be able to obtain the other endings.

“Muramasa: The Demon Blade” is not a game to be ignored. Not only is it one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen, it’s also an extremely fun game that proves that 2D gameplay still has what it takes to compete with the 3D HD franchises of modern day. Its fast pace and fantastic execution keep it constantly entertaining, and places it as one of the best experiences available on the Wii to date.

This review is based on a copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade provided to us by Ignition Entertainment.

“Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time” is the follow up to last year’s “Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates“. I’m not sure what the deal is with all these ridiculously long game titles, lately. Regardless, Echoes of Time makes a lot of improvements from the last entry in the series, establishing itself as a stronger multiplayer title, though the game is far from flawless.

Like the other games in the Crystal Chronicles series, Echoes of Time is an Action RPG. The first thing you will do when you start the game is create a character. Unfortunately, you won’t have a lot of options in this process. In fact, the only options you will have are gender and choosing from one the series’ four races. Thankfully, this is made up for by the fact that all of the game’s equipment is visible on your character.

"It's always good to have some variety in your party."

The DS and Wii versions of the game can actually be played together in multiplayer. However, both my party member and myself played the DS version for the sake of portability and easy touch screen access. Echoes of Time’s story mode can be played with up to four players. This was the number one draw for me as Ring of Fates only allowed multiplayer in a separate non-story mode.

Multiplayer can be toggled on or off at any save point. After the game’s very first cut-scene, you can walk to a save point and hop into multiplayer before you even fight your first enemy. This was an excellent design decision.

Combat in Echoes is very simple. You can perform a basic physical combo attack with a single button (bows and a few other weapon types have no combos), jump, cast magic, and pickup and throw allies, enemies, and items. Fortunately, there are a couple methods for character growth. Reaching certain levels will grant new abilities (such as a charge attack) and enemies will occasionally drop items that will permanently increase your character’s resistance to a specific element or status effect.

"The world map consists of a zoomed out screen with obvious locations to walk to."

Magic casting still uses the same ring system from the original Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube. Holding the cast button down will let you move around a ring and the spell will be cast within it once you let off the button. You can also combine your rings with the other players’, as well as lock your own rings in place to layer more on top of them. This allows you to cast more powerful spells. The simplest example would be layering two fire spells to cast “Fira”.

What sets the magic apart in Echoes is that the developers have finally decided to abandon the orb-collecting system the series’ used up until this point. You now always have the following spells equipped: Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Life, and Clear. Using them will take MP and combining spells will take an even greater amount. It’s definitely a relief to no longer be forced kill countless enemies in hopes that they will drop the right colored orb for you to use on a door-opening switch.

One of of the games biggest downfalls is how incredibly formulaic it feels. It can be a lot of fun to jump in a party with a few friends and play a dungeon or two, but if you plan on playing for an extended period of time without breaks, the game will start feeling very repetitive.

"The cat is the only one in this picture that doesn't look completely ridiculous."

After most dungeons, some sort of story segment will happen. Unfortunately, the story didn’t feel at all compelling to me. I still looked forward to completing dungeons, but for a very different reason. Every time a dungeon is completed, new equipment is available in the town. Each piece gives your character a whole new look.

You can either make equipment from the various materials that enemies drop or simply buy it. Making equipment is usually more cost-effective and can even allow you to get certain items early. Equipment can even, to a small extent, level up. If a weapon or armor piece reaches level three, you can convert it into a jewel that you can then attach to another item to enhance it. So rather than selling your old equipment, you can combine it with your new equipment. Fortunately, the shop interface is much more intuitive than the last game, always showing stat comparisons between every item. You can even see these comparisons when looking at a scroll for making a piece of equipment.

I really couldn’t see myself playing this game alone. If you’re looking for a singleplayer action RPG on the DS, look elsewhere. But if you want a really simple and easy to pick up game to play in relatively small doses with one-to-three buddies, “Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time” can be a fun little game to kill some time with, though it could have done with a few less block-pushing puzzles.

"Not a representation of the idea"

I played a decent amount of Action RPGs in 2008. Among these were games such as “The World Ends With You”, “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core”, and “Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates” (subtitle within a subtitle? Yeah… they went there!) to name a few. At some point during the year, playing these games got my creative juices flowing. My brain gave birth to an idea and I felt compelled to write it down. There it sat, alone inside a notebook. But today, faithful readers, I will share with you my dream.

First off, I have not developed any type of story for this game. However, the mechanics require at least a somewhat modern level of technology. This is due to the fact that nearly all of my ideas revolve around a portable music player that the main character would have on hand the entire game.

I imagine a seamless transition into battle, much like Kingdom Hearts or Rogue Galaxy. There would not be a seperate battle map as seen in the “Tales and Star Ocean” series’. Once the battle is initiated, the music changes to a battle song. Here’s where it starts getting interesting. The song that is played is selected randomly from a playlist that you manage. Each Song in the playlist has a different modifier effect on the battle. A heavy metal song might add to your attack, while an orchestrated piece might cut MP usage in half. None of these songs loop. Every song has a limited duration. If it comes to the end of the song during battle, a new song is chosen randomly.

As the game progresses, new songs can be both found and purchased. Every song would take up a specified number of “megs”. You can only fit so many megs worth of songs in your playlist, but as you progress, your storage capacity would increase. Each song would also have an appearance rate to determine how often it would play. A very powerful song might have a low appearance rate. One song with zero modifiers attached to it would be forever in your playlist. Any leftover megs would add to your appearance rate of that song to prevent “cheating the system”. An additional control measure could be to have different classes of songs. For example, your playlist could only contain one song of the highest class, and three of the second highest. There would be no limit set on the lowest class.

To add to the epic intensity of boss battles, every song would have an alternate version that would play during them. Some songs might not be usable on boss battles. These alternate versions could have different durations. Since your modifier is based on the song playing, duration would play a key role. Song information might be laid out along these lines:

The actual values in the chart were chosen pretty randomly, but I think it gets the idea across.

In addition to the stats mentioned, each song would have a unqiue finisher move. In order to activate the finisher move, certain criteria must be met. Whether it’s collecting orbs like Rogue Galaxy or taking damage like Final Fantasy VII is unimportant. What’s important is that, once initiated, the inputs change to that of a rhythm game. You would have to hit a string of buttons in time with the song that was playing. Your accuracy would determine how effective the attack was.

Finally, the audio of the actions performed in battle could be extra instruments in the song. Every type of action would be a different instrument, much like in Lumines. If an orchestral song is playing, for example, each succesive swing of your weapon could be a stab from a string section that fit with the music. This could also lead to timing of combos being directly connected to the flow of the current song.

I’m pretty confident that I will never be in a position to make this idea happen. So if any developers are reading this, please make this game! I volunteer to work on the soundtrack. But seriously, folks. What do you think? Leave your comments below or email me at mainfinger [ at ] wingdamage.com!